Hating on Economists
June 19, 2008 – 11:13 pm by BHJustin Wolfers Wonders What’s Wrong (Freakonomics):
First, what’s so bad about (so-called) economists anyway? I thought that the job of experts was to offer expertise. Is it that we are not offering our expertise, that we don’t have expertise to offer, or that expertise is not required? Or something else?
He’s not sure why Senators Clinton and McCain would denounce express skepticism over the economics profession. I wrote in an earlier post: Alan Blinder once wrote that economists are only useful when they disagree. When they agree, it is easy for everyone else to disregard them.
The gas tax holiday is a perfect case of this. It’s mindblowing that no economists have stepped forward to defend this proposal since even silly policies like the minimum wage get plenty of endorsements. But at the end of the day politicians do what they want if they believe the votes will be there for them. In this case it doesn’t look like the votes are with McCain on this issue, but that doesn’t mean he’ll change his political strategy.
One Response to “Hating on Economists”
I think you should be the first economist to defend the silly gas tax holiday proposal. Your boss would LOVE it!
By AR on Jun 20, 2008